courtesy photo
Connie Garber
Director of Transportation
York County Community Action Corporation

SANFORD — Connie Garber, the director of York County Community Action Corporation’s transportation program, served as a panelist with other transportation leaders at the opening session of the 2013 Northeast Passenger Transportation Conference, which was held from March 25 to 27 in Hartford, Connecticut.

An estimated 200 people attended the session, at which Garber and her peers discussed leadership issues within the transportation industry. The other panelists included Dr. Beverly Scott, the general manager of the MBTA in Boston; Marc Draisen, the executive director of Metropolitan Area Planning in Boston; and Peter Picknelly, the president of Peter Pan Bus Lines. Mary Beth Mello, the federal transit administrator for Region 1, served as moderator.

Garber has been the director of transportation for York County Community Action Corporation since 1981. During her 30-plus year tenure, she has overseen the expansion of the transportation program to provide services to residents in all 29 towns and cities in York County.

The YCCAC Transportation Program includes a bus service with 16 routes; a volunteer drivers program, which started in 1984 and now has 95 drivers; a rural and urban job access program called The WAVE (Wheels to Access Vocation and Education); and the Shoreline Explorer, a network of trolleys and buses, provided as a public-private partnership, that provides seasonal service to the coastal region of York County, and year-round service to an inland regional service center town.

The Northeast Passenger Transportation Association (NEPTA) has served the transportation community in New England and the northeastern United States since 1900. NEPTA is a nonprofit association of passenger transportation professionals, in both the private and public sectors, whose goals include promoting professionalism within the industry; disseminating information on issues of interest within the urban and rural passenger transportation communities; promoting interchange, networking, cooperation and fellowship among its members and other related organizations; and representing the concerns of its members on issues of federal and regional interest.

Garber has been the recipient of numerous awards for her innovation and outstanding leadership in the field of transportation.

The Shoreline Explorer was the recipient of the 2006 Federal Transit Administration Administrator’s Award for Outstanding Public Service. The award, which was presented to Garber at the 17th National Rural Transportation Conference in Stevenson, Washington, read, “In recognition of your outstanding contribution in meeting rural mobility needs by linking previously unconnected fixed route services.”

In 2008, YCCAC’s Volunteer Driver Program was awarded the STAR Award for Excellence by the Beverly Foundation in partnership with the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, and received a $10,000 award, which was used to provide additional rides to medical appointments for residents not covered by MaineCare. And in 2011, Garber was selected as Community Transportation Director of the Year by the Community Transportation Association of America.

York County Community Action Corporation (YCCAC) is a private nonprofit organization serving York County residents since 1966. The mission of the agency is to “alleviate the effects of poverty, attack its underlying causes, and to promote the dignity and self-sufficiency of the people of York County, Maine.” YCCAC programs include WIC, Head Start, Housing, Energy Services, Transportation, Community Outreach, and Health Care. Each year, YCCAC staff will interact with more than 40,000 low-income York County residents to help with needs ranging from hunger and health care to tax preparation, family budgeting, and home heating assistance.